A long-over-due ThankU...

What fun to see my October 12, 2011 Thanku post blossom and bloom in such original and meaningful ways.

What an honor (and surprise!) to be a Thanku recipient too.

Thank you, Carmela, and my fellow TeachingAuthors, for growing this idea.

And thank you, our TeachingAuthor readers, for both nurturing the concept and transplanting the poetic form via your students, colleagues and website visitors.

As for who receives my Writer Thanku this year, I really and truly grew a very, very VERY long list of all those who helped me become a Writer, especially a children’s book writer.

Alas, the bounty of companions who kept me traveling my Plotline boggled  my brain.

Mentors, such as Barbara Lucas.

Teachers, such as Bernice Rabe and Charlotte Graeber.

An entire international society of children’s book creators! 

Editors (Assistant, associate, senior and executive.)

Publishers, such as Holiday House and Sleeping Bear Press.

Children’s Librarians, such as Wilmette, Illinois’ Lynn Persson.

Booksellers (of the independent kind), namely Pat Wroclawski and Jan Dundon.

Reviewers, including Ilene Cooper and Mary Harris Russell.

Academicians, such as Drs.  Roxanne Owen and Marie Donovan.

The Kiddos for whom I write, of course (last, but not least).

It turns out, the World in which I do my heart’s work each day gave me Everyone – thus Everything - I needed and wanted.

So, here’s my sincere Thanku, a cornucopia of thanks, to those who continue to keep me keepin’ on.

The Children’s Book World!

Seeders, feeders sunning all

                                     Seekers of story.

Good News!  There’s  still time for you to share your  writing-related Thanku with us in one of three ways on or before November 30:

(1)   post a comment to one of our posts
(2)  send an email to us at teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com, OR
(3)  write a thank-you blog post of your own and then share the link with us via 1) or 2).

Feel free to copy and paste the image below into your blog post. We'd love if you'd also link back to this post and invite others to participate.

We’ve got a horn of plenty waiting!

Esther Hershenhorn

 

Two Weeks of Thanks-Giving!

Hello, readers! With Thanksgiving almost upon us, it's time to kick off our annual Two Weeks of Thanks-Giving celebration.

Please join us in penning a writing-related thank you. You may write your thank you in prose or a poetry form, but we especially hope you'll try a thanku – a thank you in haiku form. (See Esther's post last year explaining the Thanku form.) You might express your gratitude to a writing teacher who helped you along the way. You might thank a writer whose work you admire. Classroom teachers, Carmela issued you a special challenge to give your students the same assignment. Read about that in her original post.

We invite all our readers and fellow bloggers to share their thank yous with us. You can do so in one of three ways:
1) a comment to one of our posts,
2) an email to us at teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com, or
3) by writing a thank-you blog post of your own and then sharing the link with us via 1) or 2). Feel free to copy and paste the above image into your blog post. We'd love if you'd also link back to this post and invite others to participate. 

Please keep your creations to 25 words or less. You have until November 30. On that day we'll post a round-up of links to all the participating bloggers' posts.

Meanwhile, here's a little background on my thanku. When I was green as grass, two particular writing mentors provided steadfast friendship and cheerleading. Their encouragement made tolerable my many, many rejections. I'm sad to say that both of these nurturing souls have passed on, but, David R. Collins and Mel Boring, this one's for you:

                                                             Your steadfast support
                                                     sparked hope in this newbie heart
                                                               and made me believe.

For those of you who entered our book giveaway hoping to win an autographed copy of my new book, Angry Birds Playground:  Animals, my husband just chose a name out of a hat (okay, a measuring cup). And the winner is....
                                                                    Kristen Larson

Kristen, I'll be contacting you soon.  :)   THANK YOU to those who entered.

Jill Esbaum

November Preview, with a Special Invitation for Teachers

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all in the path of Hurricane Sandy, including our own Jeanne Marie. As a last-minute sub for her, I'm posting a quick preview of a special event we'll be sponsoring in November. We've decided to expand last year's Ten Days of Thanks-Giving into a full Two Weeks of Thanks-Giving, and we're hoping many of you will again join in the celebration, especially if you're a teacher or fellow blogger. This post includes an invitation to teachers who'd like to incorporate the event into their November lesson plans.  

Before I explain how to participate, let me share some background: In October, 2011 Esther blogged about a poetry form called a Thanku--a thank you note written in the from of a haiku. Her post inspired the TeachingAuthors team to sponsor our first ever Ten Days of Thanks-Giving last November. During those ten days, all our posts included thank you notes to someone special. In my post, I shared the following Thanku addressed to my teacher and mentor, Sharon Darrow:

Your encouragement
yielded a harvest beyond
my expectations.

We also invited readers and fellow bloggers to share their own thank yous via comments, emails, or blog posts. At the end of the ten days, we posted some of those thank you notes on our blog, along with a round up of links to other blogs that had participated in the event.

We plan to do the same this year, with some minor modifications. As I mentioned, we're expanding the event so that it will run for two full weeks. This year's Two Weeks of Thanks-Giving will take place November 16-November 30. We will again invite our readers and fellow bloggers to participate by writing a thank you note of no more than 25 words via prose or a poetry form of your choice. (We'd love to see more Thankus!) But this year, we ask that your thank yous be writing-related, expressing your gratitude to a writing teacher who helped you or to a writer you admire. You may consider following Sherman Alexie's #1 bit of advice in his Top 10 Pieces of Writing Advice:

[1] When you read a piece of writing that you admire, send a note of thanks to the author. Be effusive with your praise. Writing is a lonely business. Do your best to make it a little less lonely.

Now, to all the classroom teachers out there: We invite you to give your students the same assignment-- to compose a thank you note to an author of their choosing. Please limit the assignment to 25 words of prose or poetry. (If you're planning to have them write their notes as Thankus, see Esther's original post for inspiration.)  We'd love for you to share some of your students' notes with us, either via a comment, email, or your own blog posts. We'll then include some of their work (or a link to your blog post) in our final round-up on November 30. The kick-off post on November 16 will include complete details on how to submit to us.

For all our readers: We hope you'll also participate in our Two Weeks of Thanks-Giving. Again, watch for our November 16 kick-off post for complete details. And if you know any teachers who may be interested in participating, please share this information with them as soon as possible.

Finally, for those participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) or Picture Book Idea Month (PiBoIdMo), good luck!

Happy writing!
Carmela

Ten Days of Thanks-Giving Wrap-Up...and Poetry Friday!

Howdy Campers!

Carmela did a fine job of wrapping up our First Annual Ten Days of Thanks-Giving this week.  Yay, Carmela!

Today was my monthly hike with the women I've fallen in love with as we leaped from rock to rock to cross creeks, dripped sweat up impossible hills, walked quietly under arched tree ceilings, and been photographed with in front of waterfalls, oceans and boulders.  So today I write a thanku to the universe for giving me my hiking buds:

THANK YOU...
...for hard trails up to

egg-blue skies, for red leaves, for

six sweaty friends.

~ April Halprin Wayland

Here the last few thankus or simple thank yous:

From Joyce Ray:
I'm pretty late, but want to share my Thanku to my granddaughter Lindsay for terrific help in revising a poem recently.~
you oiled mired wheels
pushed my poem from its rut
your words, my words - WOW  

BEAUTIFUL, Joyce.

And Jan Godown Annino is the last in with this fitting contribution to our First Annual Ten Days of Thanks-Giving:
~
Grateful to the 10 Days (catching it at the tail end. was in a cave of 

thesis-writing.)
Grateful to be able to try to learn to say Thank You in many languages.
This includes some of the 560 ways of Thank You in First Languages of Peoples here before arrival of the Spanish, French & other beautiful languages that came from over the big water. Often, thanks were so extensively prayed that it was a challenge to isolate one or two words to represent the concept.

And so I thank all of you, but especially the brave young creative writing students mentioned. 

photo credit: Chris Gregory

Fellow TeachingAuthor blogger Esther Hershenhorn (not the inventor of thankus, but the one who brought them so lovingly to our attention) writes:

I'm thinking our Ten Days of Thanks-Giving offering proved the Kent State University social scientists I referenced in my original October 20 Thanku post right: people who compose short letters of gratitude do indeed experience a significant increase in their overall happiness! I followed every link, I read each and every Thanku, I can't wait to share with my Young Writers the 465 ways to say Thanks that Jan shared this morning. ThankU, TeachingAuthors readers. for taking and making the time to put some Good back in our World.  

Amen, Esther ~

Some pretty amazing Poetry Friday poems are at Carol's Corner today!

And speaking of amazing poetry,  Poet Janet Wong and Professor Sylvia Vardell have teamed up to create a whole new way to read and write poetry: www.PoetryTagTime.com ~featuring three amazing poetry anthologies. The third book in the series, Gift Tag, is out just in time for the holidays, and is already one of the best-selling children’s poetry eBooks on Amazon.com.

Check it out!

Happy trails, Campers...and remember to write with joy ~
photo credit: Chris Gregory
hiking thanku (c)2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

Tenth Day of Thanks-Giving: Roundup of Thankus and Thank-You Notes

Today is the last day of our Ten Days of Thanks-Giving. The event was inspired by Esther's post about a poetry form called the THANKU, a thank-you note in haiku form. We TeachingAuthors decided to sponsor the Ten Days of Thanks-Giving as an opportunity for our readers, students, and everyone in the Kidlitosphere to share their own thank-yous.  We hope to make this an annual event taking place every November 20-30.

Today, I'll share some of the thank you notes we received, and a roundup of links to sites where fellow bloggers posted their thank-yous. But first, I want to share my own THANKU.

On Monday, Mary Ann wrote about being thankful for the Hive, a group of Vermont College alumni that we're both blessed to be part of. My thank you today is an appropriate follow-up to that post because it's to the woman responsible for my attending Vermont College: my teacher, mentor, and friend, Sharon Darrow. I've known Sharon for so long now that I can't even recall how we first met. However, I do remember the fateful day when we had lunch together and I mentioned my desire to take some advanced writing classes. Sharon encouraged me to apply to the Vermont College MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults instead. The idea terrified me. Who was I to try to get an MFA in writing? My undergraduate degree was in Math and Computer Science! But Sharon had such faith in me that I decided to take the plunge and apply. Little did I know then all the wonderful things my acceptance to VC would lead to.

I don't think I can top the marvelous tribute Esther wrote last week in honor of her mentor and teacher, Barbara Lucas. So instead, I dedicate this simply Thanku Haiku to Sharon Darrow:

Your encouragement

yielded a harvest beyond

my expectations.

Thank you, Sharon. And thank you to all the wonderful writing teachers I worked with at Vermont College as a result of following Sharon's advice.

Now, to share some of the thank you notes and comments we received during our Ten Days of Thanks-Giving. As it happens, just this morning Bobby Miller, a terrific writer I met when we were both students at Vermont College, posted a Vermont College-related thank-you comment on Mary Ann's post of yesterday:

I share my big Thank You to the MFA/Writing for Children program. It changed my life, personally and professionally. It brought my life's goal into focus, gave it purpose. And I walked away with treasured friendships.

Yesterday, Linda at Teacherdance posted a beautiful 25-word thank-you note to her writing community as a comment on that same blog post:

Thank you my writing colleagues;
your words bless me, put my life
into a higher plane, entice me to
write more, think more, be more.

I had invited the students of a creative writing class I'm teaching for homeschoolers ages 10-14 to participate in our Ten Days of Thanks-Giving. Only one girl, Julia, was brave enough to share her 25-word thank-you note here:

Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful, so let's eat and drink and be merry. It is a time to be with family and friends.

Hooray for Julia! (See below for another student submission!)

And here are links to posts by other bloggers who participated in our celebration (roughly in the order of their posting):

• Tammy, a kindergarten teacher who blogs at the KlingerCafe posted a thank you note to her student teacher on November 20.
• Author/illustrator Michelle Kogan shared an original Thanku Haiku on her blog on November 21.
• On the same day, Lisa Ard posted a lovely Thanku Haiku to her grandmother on her Adventures in Writing blog.
• Also on November 21, Brenda Ferber posted a terrific trio of Thanku Haikus on her blog, Fresh Baked Bits.
• On November 21 and 22, Jules shared her own original Thanku Haikus on two blogs: Rhymesntime and  WritersVibe. Then one of Jules' fellow writers at the WritersVibe posted a comment in response to Jules that included a lovely Thanku Haiku to her co-bloggers:

Together we find
spirit greater than ourselves.
Our words, golden light. 

• Finally, on Thanksgiving day, Margo Dill posted her Thanku Haiku to her parents on her blog.

This just in (at 2:05 pm): a fun thank-you poem from Tyler, another of my homeschool students. (He submitted it via the comments, but I want all our subscribers to be able to see it too.)

I am thankful for:

family and friends,

cats, dogs,

fish, frogs,

people and places,

dungeons and maces,

Wait not thankful for that...

...it just rhymes.

Love the humor, Tyler! Thanks so much for participating!

And from author Leone Castell Anderson comes this lovely Thanku Haiku:

 "Thanks." A little word

but of infinite meaning.

For loving thoughts shared.

Marvelous, Leone!

Thanks again to everyone who took part in our Ten Days of Thanks-Giving. For those of you who'd still like to join in: it's not too late to send us your links and thank-you notes. I'll either add them to this roundup, or ask April to include them in her post on Friday.

Happy writing!
Carmela

ThankU for. . .Buzzing Bees

     Conventional wisdom says that the friends you make in college are the ones you make for life, whether you are twenty, or firmly in middle-age.  I never expected to make twelve new BFF's in my forties, but I did.  My ThankU goes out to my Vermont College  MFA in Writing for Children classmates, Summer '00, aka "The Hive." These incredible writers have become a part of my life, both personally and professionally.  Who would have thought when we met in the luggage claim at the Burlington Airport, July 1998, that we still be the close-knit group we are today?
       I belong to a terrific critique group here in Georgia, all.  I am a member of  the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and through that organization I have writing friends all over the country. (If there is one thing we need in this solitary life we've chosen, it's friends who also write!) Yet none of these wonderful people have become part of my family, and I, theirs. Within the Hive, we know the status of each other's manuscripts.  We share our collective knowledge of editors, agents, publishers, and other writers. We have seen each other through the death of spouses and parents, pregnancy and illness.  Together we have shepherded our children from "the terrible twos" to the troublesome teens to college and marriage and another generation.

    At first meeting, we were as diverse a group as you could find, aged twenty-something to seventy-something, with most of us somewhere smack in the middle.  We came from all over the country, and just for something completely different, Thailand (that was me). In fact, had I not had my fellow "Bees" as close as my computer screen, I never would have survived my year and a half on the other side of the world.  I remember the Thanksgiving my husband was on assignment in China, and the Bees kept emailing me to keep me from being too homesick, alone in my Bangkok high rise with a four-year-old.

    When we came to Vermont College, differences in age, geography and previous publishing experience were forgotten.  What mattered is that we had the same desire…to become the best possible writer we could. So intense were we, hanging on our instructors' every word, that our class loomed large on the faculty radar.  We believe it was one of those instructors, Brock Cole, who inadvertently dubbed as "bees" because we fairly buzzed with questions and enthusiasm.  So, if individually we were Bees, together we were "The Hive."

     Not everyone in our class wished to maintain contact after graduation. Some members of the considerably smaller Winter '00 class wanted to be part of the Hive. We were honored that someone wanted to cast their lot with our busy bunch. It is hard to remember now when those two members were one of our number.

     When I tell other writers about The Hive, they always ask how often we hear from each other. They are amazed that the answer is "couple of times a day."  On the rare occasions that The Hive falls silent, someone (usually JoAnn) will send out an email on the order of "Where is everybody?" If one of us doesn't log in for a period of time, someone is sure to email (or even call) to make sure all is well.

    Because we are scattered across the country, we have never physically all been together in the same place, not even at graduation. (The two "Bee adoptees" graduated before us.) We have managed to get a good number of them together in one place for various reunions, but never all of us.  Still, we see each other more than most families do.  If one of us is speaking in a Bee's hometown, you can be sure that any Bee within a fifty mile radius will be there too.

    So...for all the manuscripts you've critiqued, rejection letters you've suffered through, rants about editors endured and professional connections made, my heartfelt ThankU goes out to the two Gretchens, the two Carolyns, Maribeth, Laura, Phyllis, April and Lindan. A special ThankU to Carmela, Jeanne Marie and JoAnn, my fellow TA's and Hive members. And through the TA connection, I have become friends with Esther and April.

   The Hive is the source that keeps on giving!

   Don't forget to send your ThankU's to us.  See Esther's last Wednesday post for details.

 Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

Of Thanks and Thankus!

Say the word Thanksgiving and right away, I’m gathering my favorite newspaper recipes – Mom’s Foolproof Turkey from a 1989 Chicago Tribune, Do-ahead Mashed Potatoes that are the stuff of any cardiologist’s dream, Cooked Cranberry Orange Relish that always surprises.

But now I have a new favorite holiday recipe, non-fat and non-caloric, yet nevertheless delicious: a Thanksgiving Thanku, a thank you note in the form of a haiku.

Expressing gratitude has never been easier.

Between now and November 30, come join our TeachingAuthors Ten Days of Thanks-Giving Celebration by writing a Thanku or any kind of thank you note, 25 words or less, to express your gratitude – to a friend, relative, neighbor, teacher, stranger, Little-known Hero, character, pet, author, artist, you-name-him/her/it – the choice is yours. Then share your thank-you with us in one of three ways:

1. Post it as a comment to any of our blog posts through Nov. 30.
2. Send it to us via email to teachingauthors at gmail dot com, with "Thanks-Giving" as the subject. Depending on the number of emails we receive, we'll share some of your notes in our posts.
3. Post it on your own blog and then share the link either via a comment or email. On November 30, Carmela will post a round-up of all the links we receive.

The recipient of my Thank You Note today?

One Barbara Lucas, Writer, Teacher, Editor, Publisher and Mentor Extraordinaire, Founder in 1983 of the one-week summer Vassar College Institute of Children’s Book Publishing and Writing that changed my Life.

I (bravely) attended the Institute in 1989, 1990, 1991, then again in 1993 (as a presenter) and finally in 1995, as a celebrant of the Institute’s 15th Anniversary. I’d be neither an Author nor a Writing Teacher had Barbara’s path and mine not crossed.

                                                  (Barbara Lucas, front row, far right)

Barbara got her start in publishing at Harper and Row, as assistant to the legendary Ursula Nordstrom. She was Editor-in-Chief at Putnam and then at Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich, when the publisher had all 3 names. She and Artist’s Representative Dilys Evans began and oversee Lucas-Evans Books, a book packager.

Institute mornings from 9 am to noon, I learned my craft, sitting at Barbara’s feet, and those of her fellow teachers – authors M.J. Auch, Marge Facklam, Stephanie Tolan, Patricia Hermes and Jean Marzollo. They taught me the elements of writing and the tenets of writing for children from my fellow attendees’ submitted manuscripts.

Afternoons and evenings, we met invited guests, key members of the Children’s Book World who traveled up the Hudson from New York City to Poughkeepsie: editors, publishers, art directors, marketing specialists, academicians, librarians, agents, book reviewers, authors, illustrators.
In between sessions and long into the night, we writers connected, forging a community.

It was Barbara who shared: I was writing above my plotline, not plugged into my characters; how could my readers connect with the story? 

It was Barbara who believed in me, gifting me with a classroom poster of Troy Howell’s Original Art, a poster that now adorns the wall above my desk.

It was Barbara who introduced me to my Children’s Book World’s residents and showed me my story was but the Very First Step in a book's creations.  So many hands touch that book before the story can touch the reader.

The wonder of Barbara is: I am but one of so many children’s book writers and illustrators lucky enough to have reason to write the above Thank You Note.

Barbara empowered us so we could go forth and empower our readers.
I pay her Kindness forward each and every time I help a writer.
I model her instruction, each and every class I teach.

I’d write an original Thanku but fellow Vassar Institute attendee and author Kay Winters’ thank you haiku says it all:
                            How lucky we were

                            to meet those who stretched a hand.
                            They showed us the way.

For the record, I have indeed expressed my gratitude to Barbara on numerous occasions over the years.
But one can’t say “Thank you!” enough.

I join my fellow TeachingAuthors in wishing our readers Happy Thanksgiving!

Esther Hershenhorn

Thanku, World

I have spent the last few weeks in a major funk -- the kind that makes me feel sorry for everyone who has to live with me, deal with me, talk to me.  After a weekend in which I learned of the deaths of my friend's dad, Carmela's mother-in-law, and my parents' dear dog, Riley, writing a thanku would seem like a really timely exercise.  However, this morning... I'm coming up dry.

I tried to get my kids to do the work for me.  Kate pouted.  Patrick said, "I'll do it.  I'm thankful for... everything.  And rainbows."

Kate, her arms folded, scowling, finally acknowledged, "I'm grateful for Grandma and Pap.  Family.  Food.  Can I be done now?"

Perhaps my cheerful attitude is contagious.

I remember reading a tweet from the late children's writer Bridget Zinn a few days before she died.  She was desperately ill when she wrote, "Sunshine and a good book.  Perfect." 

Hugs; wonderful friends; dog kisses; the knees in my back when my kid is snuggling with me at night; a husband who loves me no matter how difficult I am; sadness, because it makes us appreciate happiness all the more; good health; God; love; life.

Thanks to all of you reading this who are blessings in my life. --Jeanne Marie

Ten Days of Thanks-Giving: Time to Share Your Thank-Yous (and THANKUs)

Today is the official start of our Ten Days of Thanks-Giving! As JoAnn explained on Friday, this is the first of what we hope will be an annual event, taking place November 20-30.

It all started with Esther's post about a new poetry form she invented: the THANKU, a thank-you note in haiku form. After her post, we talked about how there's so much negativitiy and bad news in the world, and how it might be uplifting to do a series of thank-you posts about people and things for which we're grateful. We'll start that series tomorrow. Meanwhile, we came up with the idea for sponsoring the Ten Days of Thanks-Giving: an opportunity for our readers and everyone in the Kidlitosphere to share their own thank-yous.  We encourage you (and your students!) to write a thank-you note of 25 words or less, as a poem or prose. Then share your thank-you with us in one of three ways:

1. Post it as a comment to any of our blog posts from today through Nov. 30.
2. Send it to us via email to teachingauthors at gmail dot com, with "Thanks-Giving" as the subject. Depending on the number of emails we receive, we'll share some of your notes in our posts.
3. Post it on your own blog and then share the link either via a comment or email. On November 30, I'll post a round-up of all the links we receive.

If you're feeling creative, try your hand at writing a THANKU.  Esther first wrote about the form here. And Lori Degman used the form to write a lovely reply in the comments:

Thank you Esther H.
for sharing yourself with us.
You've touched countless lives!!

Or you can try one of the poetry forms JoAnn shared on Friday.

Or just write a simple thank-you note.

I'll be sharing my thank-you when I post next week. Meanwhile, know that I'm especially thankful for my five amazingly talented co-bloggers, for all our wonderful readers, and for all the fantastic Kidlit bloggers I've come to know since we started this blog.

Happy Thanks-Giving!

Carmela 

Ten Days of Thanks-Giving & New Forms to Try

Inspired by Esther’s invention of the thanku (a thank you note in haiku form), we Teaching Authors are celebrating our first annual Ten Days of Thanks-Giving with poems in that form and others.

When I thought about writing a Thanksgiving thanku, I started by brainstorming a list of possible topics—people, places, and things I'm grateful for. My gratitude list was impossibly long, so I decided to focus on that moment.

stillness before dawn—
recliner, cozy blanket,
coffee, notebook, pen

Although it fits the syllable count and describes something I'm grateful for, this one doesn't feel like a thank you note. I went back to my list. In my poetry class this week, two students introduced me to new forms, so I decided to try them.

The etheree has ten lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 syllables—or in reverse, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. An etheree with more than one stanza can include both.

This form seemed to suit my long list of things I’m grateful for, so I chose some that fit the pattern.

luck
coffee
purple pens
soft yellow yarn
dogs with wagging tails
chances to start over
sunlight streaking through dense woods
crossing chores off my to-do list
kicking up crunchy leaves on my walk
old family photo albums, labeled

Notice how coffee appears in both poems? I like to write first thing in the morning. But not only did this feel more like a list poem than a thank you note, using the etheree form forced me to leave out some of the most obvious things I’m grateful for. I could certainly add more stanzas with the number of syllables counting back down and up again. And again and again. (As I said, I have a long list!)

The lanturne is shaped like a Japanese lantern: it has five lines with 1, 2, 3, 4, and 1 syllables. Mine, like the thanku above, focuses on a moment.

long
drive home
from night class
open the door
sniff

fresh
spicy
aroma
what’s in the pot?
look

warm
kitchen
windows steamed
homemade chili
taste

beans
(two kinds)
tomatoes
from your garden
yum

sweet
welcome
(comfort food)
how you show your
love

This one hits the spot for me because it feels more like a thank you note. The end came as a surprise, which is one of my favorite things about writing. Sometimes I don't know what I'm writing about until it comes out of my pen.

Writing Workout: Write a Thanks-Giving poem. Teachers, invite your classes to join in! Try a thanku, an etheree, a lanturne, or another new form. See if you can express your thanks in 25 words or less. Then post your poems here or on any of our posts during our Ten Days of Thanks-Giving, November 20-30. Or send them to us by e-mail: teachingauthors at  gmail dot com.

Today's Poetry Friday roundup is at The Opposite of Indifference. Take a peek!

JoAnn Early Macken

Poetry Friday, Thankus, and Ten Days of Thanks-Giving ~

~

Howdy Campers—welcome!  Come in, come in...it's 

So pull up a chair, grab a steaming cuppa tea,
and read the words of happy (or appropriately despondent)
poets contributing to today's celebration, below!

Today I'm delighted to offer you a sneak peek preview of TeachingAuthors' First Annual...

This year, Ten Days of Thanks-Giving will run November 20-30. It all began with our own Esther Hershenhorn's post about Thankus, which are thank you notes in the form of a haiku.

It's lovely to sit for a moment (or drive my car without the radio, as I did) and think of the one person to whom you'd like to write a thank you note or poem.

Here's the Thanku I wrote today:
~
THANKU TO BARB
by April Halprin Wayland
~
When rain pours, when my
nose drips—you wrap around me
like my softest quilt.

WRITING WORKOUT:
Write a Thank You Note or a Thanku poem!

For November 20-30, we'd like to encourage you to take some "thank you time"...to try your hand at writing a thanku, or any kind of thank you note, 25 words or less.

So: to whom are you grateful?  A relative, that wonderful next-door neighbor, your hair dresser, a stranger, a teacher?

If you're a teacher, why not ask your students the same question?  And if you and/or your students are overflowing with gratitude and cannot wait one more minute, by all means leave your thankus or 25-word thank you notes in the comments below or email us at teachingauthors at  gmail dot com!

...and remember to write with joy!

P.S: Did you know that November is Picture Book Month?

Our old dog Rosie, reading her favorite poetry picture book

Thanku poem and photo of Rosie (c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved